Kerala set to become country’s first zero landless citizen state

TRIVANDRUM — The southern Indian state of Kerala has over 217000 people without land in the state.

The list of the landless people was prepared by the Revenue Department under the ‘Zero Landless Citizen’ scheme announced by the Congress-led United Democratic Front to ensure at least three cents of land to every landless.

The department had received a total nearly 300, 000 applications. Of this 217, 358 applicants were found eligible for land under the scheme. The list of the eligible persons will soon be published on the website /www.zerolandless.kerala.gov.in/www.zerolandless.kerala.gov.in.

People can verify the details from the website and report errors if any to the concerned authorities. The final list is scheduled to be published on November, the formation day of the state. As per the list prepared by the revenue department, the highest number of people without land is in the state capital of Trivandrum. As many as 33,362 people in the district have been found eligible for land. Trivandrum is followed by Quilon with 27,075 landless.

Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash said that the government was planning to distribute at least three cents of land to everybody in the list by 2015. The beneficiaries, who include estate workers from Tamil Nadu living in Kerala, will not be allowed to sell the land for 25 years.

If the beneficiaries do not use the land for three years, the government will recover the land from their possession. The Revenue Minister said that the government will have to acquire about 8000 acres of land for distribution to all the landless.

The district authorities have started identifying land available for the distribution.

The government is planning to develop residential colonies to rehabilitate the landless.